Wow, that was an exhilarating election, wasn’t it? Of course, even a car wreck can be exhilarating.
Still, this Thanksgiving, progressive Americans can find plenty of political progress for which we can be grateful. Rather than looking to Washington, however, look around your own area.
The media mavens don’t cover it, but grassroots progressives are forging surprising coalitions in such places as Iowa, Houston, Syracuse, central Missouri, New Haven, Ohio and Rhode Island. All across the country, people are producing new solutions and structural changes that add up to real hope for shared prosperity in America. In issues big and small, there’s much we can be thankful for … and build on.
Take a big one that Washington “leaders” — both Republicans and Democrats — bungled: reigning in Wall Street greed. A growing network of more than two dozen local coalitions have coalesced into an activist force that you can link with by going to www.ShowdownInAmerica.org. Showdown has deployed more than 200 organizers around the country to rally grassroots support for breaking up too-big-to-fail banks and to decentralize Wall Street’s monopolistic power into locally based financial institutions.
Another effort helps you mount your own personal rebellion against the big banksters by withdrawing your money from them. After all, it is your money, so why let the bastards have it? Go to www.MoveYourMoney.info to get how-to steps for transferring your funds into credit unions, community banks and socially responsible investment firms.
The point here is that real change is up to us, not to Obama or the Democratic Party. They are not the progressive movement; we are. And you can find action right where you live to start putting progress back in “progressive.”
JimHightower.com
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